A rather unheard of practice today was the practice of officers and soldiers purchasing their own weapons, particularly sidearms, but this proved the norm in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Sharpe Model 1760 was one such product obtained by British naval ship captains and officers as a last-line-of-defense (though ahead of the trusty sabre) when attempting boarding endeavors against enemy ships. The pistol was typical of flintlocks of the day, manufactured by Sharpe of London and seeing service throughout the world.
On the whole, it was highly conventional with its single-piece wood body and inlaid metal workings including the seated barrel. The metalworks were assembled along the right side of the gun as usual and included the cocking arm holding the required flint rock and the strike area over the frizzen needed for ignition of the charge. The charge and ball ammunition was sent down the barrel by way of the muzzle through use of a ramrod which formed a part of the weapon's reloading process. The ramrod was held in a channel bored into the fore-end of the gun - similar to that as seen on full-length muskets of the day. The trigger group was underslung near the action in the usual way. As a single-shot weapon, the operator needed care as to delivering a fatal shot lest he carry two or more pistols for subsequent shots.
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